Guyana has its biggest festival – Mashramani – exactly a week from now. I am going to miss it. But as a run up to that, everyday seems to be a festival day. Every Friday till “Mash Day”, this half mile long strip on Main Street becomes a carnival of loud, live music, beer and dancing. I went there before it became too crowded.

There was total festivities everywhere. Today is Valentine’s Day. So, all the women and girls were in red. And these Guyanese folks know where the Volume Up button in their loud speakers is. I was almost getting blown away by the bass notes. The local beer company Banks sponsors the event and beer is flowing everywhere.

Should see the 70 something and 80 something grandmothers dance. Not a care in life.

As it should be.

Reminded me a lot about India with some exceptions… barely anybody walks on the streets, not many motorcycle or scooters and traffic was fairly orderly without any traffic policeman around.

There are streets named after him too!

Leaving a lot of yucky mud around. One thing about the beaches here – nobody gets into the water, for obvious reasons…

Right in the middle of the hotel lobby is this show case with multiple bats carrying signatures of cricketers from Guyana.

The force of Demerara river is so high that it dumps all the silt it brings as far as 3 miles into the sea. In fact, if you see the Guyana coast in Google satellite picture, you will see how the muddy waters extend for miles followed by some turquoise water (the contrast is jarring) followed by the deep blue Atlantic ocean.

Lots of construction going on. Apparently China is investing a lot in Guyana. That muddy river you see on the side – that is Demerara river bringing in a boat load of silt from the Amazon rainforest.

Taking full advantage of Sharmila being in India and the long weekend, I am venturing out to check out another small country. Guyana.

Why Guyana, you ask? I don’t know. Two years back when I flew to India to surprise Sharmila, my cover for that travel was a trumped up story that I was visiting Suriname. I loved the name of their capital – sounds like a Bengali word – Paramaribo.

Guyana is an even smaller country right next to it. Got fairly good tickets. (In Bengali, দামটাও দেখে নিলাম “গায়ে না” লাগে !). So, here I am.

Found out that 40% of Guyanese are of Indian origin (like Fiji) and one in three are Hindus. Apparently it is sparsely populated (only more than 4 other countries are more sparse) but GDP per capita is pretty high. In the Americas, only USA, Canada and the Bahamas beat it. However, there is tremendous inequality of income. Nearly half the people are below the poverty line.

Time to explore now!!

Almost looks like a Boeing 747 went thru an Airbus Beluga. You can see the windows in the front and then above it the cockpit. So, has to be at least three stories high and consequently, a humongous cargo plane.

One of the best play on words – and ad placement – I have ever seen was in JFK airport many years back while going thru customs and immigration. As you come out after wrapping up your formalities and start walking down the long corridor to exit – there was an Amex ad that said “If you had a green card, you would not need a visa!!” To get this, you have to remember that in the old days, Amex cards used to have an iconic green color.

Coming out of the flight from Atlanta today, as I started walking down the corridors of Miami airport, I looked up a saw the Amex Centurion lounge. And right there was this lovely play on words for folks who are tired of their delayed flights…

Amex: You are a Member when you seize the delay !